Two lost souls
by Filiola.Fauni
Summary: Set in the late season 4. Spencer Reid gets to know his new co-worker and finds a great friend and maybe even more in her. Still their jobs make them targets of serial killers every day and drama is about to come. Can they stand the struggles? (First few chapters: Character introduction; later chapters: Actual story)
1. Strangers are friends waiting to happen

**A/N: I have been thinking about a story centered around Spencer Reid for a very long time now and finally got to write something. In this story I will rather focus on his character development than on the cases of the BAU. Mostly I will adapt cases from the show with a more detailed story about Reid around it. The other characters of the show will also be part of it and in addition there is going to be a new character, that is going to be very important.**

 **Set in late season 4. Starting with episode 4.19 "House on fire"**

 **Some disclaimers on my behalf: English is not my mother language so I apologize in advance if there are mistakes. Also I am not super smart, but I hope the things I let super-smart Reid say are not total crap. And: I do not own the characters of the show or the show itself. Except for the new character :D**

1\. Strangers are just friends waiting to happen

"This is news footage from the movie-theater in Royal, Indiana, population 2 000. Earlier tonight 19 people were killed." JJ introduced the new case to the team. It was Monday morning in early spring and everybody was still tired and partly still processing the struggles of the last case of "The Reaper", that was still unsolved, since George Foyet had managed to escape. While JJ presented the facts of the new case to the team, Reid looked around wondering about the absence of Hotch.

"And they're sure it's arson?" Morgan just inquired. After the team had discussed their first thoughts on the case Reid asked the others where Hotch was.

"He is right now meeting with our newest team member." Rossi informed the others.

"I didn't know we were getting a new team member!?" Emily stated.

"Since I'm stepping a little back from my work in the field, it was decided you could use some more support." JJ explained. Reid looked up from the sheets in his hand. "You're stepping back? I didn't know? Why? I thought you were good?"

"Calm down, I will still be around here in Quantico. I just don't feel good leaving Henry behind this much. I feel like I'm missing out, you know." She gave him an apologetic look.

"So who is he? Or she? Have you met the new one yet?" Garcia turned to Rossi, who just shrugged. "Well I assume it's a she, but you can ask her herself." He pointed to the open door, where Hotch was talking to a rather young woman, both of them approaching the office, in which the others were waiting.

"Good morning. May I introduce to you your new team member, Special Agent Falkenbach." Hotch greeted the team.

"Hi everyone! Nice to meet you." The young woman smiled and looked from one to the other, occasionally locking her eyes on the floor. Reid could tell she was nervous, but as she made eye-contact with him her gaze didn't flicker, implying a good portion of natural self-confidence. He couldn't help but notice she was pretty. She wasn't exactly tall, based on her proportions he guessed about 5'4" feet. Her figure was rather slim but not skinny. In spite of her very light blonde waist-long hair and dark blue eyes the colour of her skin hinted that she might tan easily. Reid guessed that her parents both had rather dark hair and her blonde hair just came to happen by both of them passing the recessive gene for blonde hair to her.

"Welcome to the team!" Rossi greeted her shaking her hand. "You might just jump in the deep end with us right now. We're going to Indiana."

"Did you present the case to them?" Hotch asked JJ who nodded. "Okay. Plane is ready in 30. Alright for you to rush into this on your first day with us?" He addressed Agent Falkenbach.

"Yes I think so. I..." she trailed off gliding her fingers through her long hair. Reid totally understood her being nervous. He could remember every second of his first day and he had been terribly nervous. Giving a closer look to the skin around her eyes he guessed she must be in her early or mid twenties maybe 2 or 3 years younger than him. He also noticed that she wasn't wearing any make-up – as far as he could tell, since he didn't really know a lot about this stuff. While he had been thinking about the new girl most of the others had left the room to prepare for the flight. Now it was only him, her and Garcia, who was typing something on her notebook. Agent Falkenbach looked around the room awkwardly kneading her hands causing Reid to frantically search for a subject he could talk to her about. He had never been good with small talk, but still had managed to get along. So he just blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

"Falkenbach sounds German." He said, wondering if people would consider this a weird start of a conversation. But the young woman looked kind of relieved with this subject.

"Yes. I actually am German. I mean, I was born in the USA, but my parents are German and I was raised there. In northern Germany, not in the southern part. When people think of Germany, they always think of Bavaria, but that's just a part of it. I do not identify with Lederhos'n and Oktoberfest at all. But I actually attended University in Munich. But-" She stopped in mid-sentence realizing she hadn't taken a break to breathe in the last 30 seconds. "I'm sorry. I'm rambling." Her hand went up into her hair – for the second time within a few minutes. Reid noted this as a nervous habit of her.

"Don't be sorry." A small smile was playing around Reid's lips. "I can actually speak some German. Tell me more of that later, we will have some time on the plane maybe. I will just go and grab my bag for travelling." He waved his hand and left the room.

She stayed behind and smiled a little to herself, but thinking of his last remark got a little confused. She contemplated about asking the woman with the glasses and the colourful clothes about it.

"Sorry," she inquired sheepishly. "What did he mean with 'bag for travelling'? I didn't bring a bag..." Garcia looked up from the screen of her notebook. "Oh sweety, it's your first day, right? When you have a case and you go to the place, where it happens, you usually stay there for a few days or even longer until the case is solved."

"Oh yes. Of course. I should have known that. I KNEW that. But I actually didn't expect to go just on my first day." She sighed. "Ugh. I was being stupid."

"Oh don't you worry, sweety. You can just buy some stuff when you get there. Even though it's in the middle of nowhere, they have to have some store there. I can send you an address to your cell-phone." Garcia offered reassuringly.

"Oh thank you, that's really nice. I thought I was prepared for this job..." She rolled her eyes.

"Penelope Garcia, at your service. Now go and get on the plane." Garcia ordered. "Do you see that woman with the dark hair outside? That's Emily Prentiss. Just follow her and you will get to the plane." She added after the new agent gave her a helpless look.

* * *

"Based on the limited population of Royal the unsub is most likely a local male between the ages of 17 and 30." Reid stated 45 minutes later as the team was discussing the case on the plane again. The new agent was a little cautious and listened mostly. After the team had talked back and forth about how to proceed when they were going to arrive, Rossi addressed her directly. "So, Agent Falkenbach, you have been very quiet for a start. What do you think about this as your first case?"

"I mean, until now I do not have any experience in the field. But I imagine it's going to be difficult: I grew up in a small town: People are going to assume everyone we question is guilty. I think we have to be very careful on how we address them." She answered calmly.

"She is right. We should definitely think of this, when we talk to the locals." Hotch agreed with her.

"Agent Falkenbach." Morgan said.

"Mh. Yeah?"

"You're part of the team now and all I know is your surname."

"What do you wanna know?"

"We could start with you first name."

"Well..." she chuckled, "do you want the long or the short version?"

"There is a long version?" He raised his eyebrows.

"My full name is Emilia Katharina Eleonore Elodie von Falkenbach zu Wiehenberg."

"That's a hell of a name." Prentiss commented.

"von Falkenbach zu Wiehenberg implies some aristocratic roots." Reid added.

"Yes, that's right. But if you want to call me by a first name you can just go with 'Kat'. That's a lot easier." The young woman suggested.

"But in fact you first name is Emilia, isn't it?" Emily asked.

"Technically yes, but no one ever called me that. I guess I just wouldn't react."

* * *

Later in the office of the local police station in Royal Reid, Hotch, Kat and Garcia – on the other side on the computer – were racking their brains about probable unsubs. There seemed to be no clue at all.

"I need to know who had enemies, who had secrets, who is a target!" Hotch demanded from Penelope, who tried to respectfully remind him, she wasn't a profiler. But he wouldn't back off explaining the time was running.

"Reid and Falkenbach, I need you to take a look at the smaller fires." He addressed the two agents in the room. "The others and me are gonna take part in the service, that is held for the victims and see if anybody is acting conspicuously." After his orders he rushed out of the room. Reid looked at Kat and gave her a small smile and then turned to the board, where they had hung all the pictures of the victims and the places the unsub had set on fire.

"A convenient store, a restaurant... he seems to be choosing his targets so randomly." Kat remarked.

"Well, actually I am pretty sure he is choosing his targets on purpose. They have to mean something to him." Reid responded.

"You said before, it's most likely, that the arsonist is a local. And even though in this town everybody seems to lead the perfect life, there are always people who seem to be or feel excluded by the community. Maybe someone wants to take revenge and targets places that symbolize the perfect small town life, like a convenient store or a movie-theater."

"Yes, that is a pretty good thought! We should stick with that." Reid gave her a reassuring look. "Not bad for your first day as a profiler. Did you study psychology?"

"I did. But I think in this case it's more my experience with small-town people. They just love to gossip and it's never a nice thing to be the object of all the gossip." She shrugged.

"Well, I grew up in Las Vegas, which is the opposite of a small town, and still managed to become the favourite object of people's gossip... so..." He trailed off.

"Wow Las Vegas, I kind of imagine growing up there is something completely different. But what do I know." She rubbed her head, which didn't go unnoticed by Reid.

"You know what? I'm gonna get us some coffee to fuel our thoughts about this." He suggested. "I'll be back in a minute!" Kat was glad about this suggestion. Even though she had managed to get over her first-day-insecurity she was still feeling a little tense. Especially around Hotch she was kind of afraid to say or do something wrong. He appeared to be quite strict. With Reid around her she was feeling more at ease. He was being supportive and she had to admit to herself that she felt the desire to get to know him better. As she realized her thoughts were drifting into a direction that wasn't related to the case at all, she tried to collect her thoughts and concentrate again. She wheeled around in order to get a pen for the board, but unfortunately Reid had just appeared behind her with two full cups of coffee. She ran right into him and he spilled the coffee all over her light blue blouse.

"Aaah!" She made.

"Oh no! I am so sorry, Kat!" He set the cups on the table. "I can get a towel... I ..." As he noticed the hot liquid made her light blouse a little transparent and he could see her underwear shining through it he locked his eyes on the floor and blushed. "Do you have your bag with the clothes here in the police station or at the hotel? You should change your clothes. Your blouse, it's ... soaked."

"Well, to be honest, I ... um... I didn't bring a bag with clothes at all. When I arrived this morning, I wasn't really expecting to go on a journey on my first day. I was planning to buy something later on today." She explained a little embarrassed.

"Oh well, um... I could lend you a shirt, if you'd want to. I always keep my stuff close." He offered.

"Yes? That would be great! Because running around in a police-office with a coffee soaked top, through which you can basically see my bra, is the last thing I'd want on my first day." She made a relieved sigh. Reid cleared his throat. "I'll just go and give it to you then. Um...the shirt." He walked out of the room rolling his eyes at his own awkwardness. He returned with a white button-down shirt and a wet washing cloth from the kitchen, so she could wipe some of the coffee off her skin, and handed it to her.

"Oh, thanks a lot!" She exclaimed and to Reid's surprise she began unbuttoning her top right in front of him. He raised his eyebrows, made a weird sound and turned around. Noticing his discomfort Kat stopped moving.

"I'm sorry. Changing right here is inappropriate, right? Sometimes I don't realize those things."She covered her eyes with one hand.

"No, I- yes. Well..." He stumbled over his words. "I mean, I think it's considered inappropriate, but this thing has been basically transparent for the past ten minutes now, so it won't even make difference anymore." He pointed to her clothing and blushed even more, his ears felt like they were burning by now. "But if anybody entered the room right now, this sight might cause some questions."

"You know what? I'm just hiding behind those boards here. I think this will work." She said while doing as she implied.

"Yeah and I will get us new coffee since we messed up the last one." At this point he was really glad to have an excuse to exit the room. Behind the board Kat chided herself for not thinking about her actions.

As Reid returned, Kat was dressed in his shirt, which was surely a bit oversized for her, staring at the pictures on the board. He himself had calmed down again. Carefully he placed the mugs on the table and stood next to her trying to refocus on the case, but she interrupted his thoughts again.

"I am sorry, if I made you feel uncomfortable... Reid." She added, not knowing his first name.

"Never mind." He said. "And it's Spencer."

"Alright then, Spencer." They shared a smile. "Let's get back to this." She said pointing at the board.

* * *

"Kat, what are you wearing?" Emily addressed Agent Falkenbach as most of the police officers were leaving the room after the team had presented the profile to them. There had been another fire in a bar, but still they had no precise hint of who could have done it.

"Well, what happened is..." She began to explain, but Rossi cut her off. "Isn't that your shirt, Spencer?"

"I accidentally spilled coffee on her top, so of course I offered her mine." He clarified.

"Accidentally? Well, well. I didn't know you could turn on your game so fast, pretty boy." Morgan mocked him.

"It WAS an accident!" For just another time Reid felt the heat crawling up his cheeks and further to his ears, reddening his skin.

"Guys, can we please focus again." Hotch tried to chide his co-workers, obviously intending to sound serious, but he also couldn't completely hide the grin, that was playing around the corners of his mouth.

* * *

Two days later the members of the team were sitting in their jet headed back to Quantico. Kat, dressed in a dark sweatshirt she had bought in a store in Royal, was sitting opposite of Reid, both staring out of the window. Morgan sat on the other side of the aisle, eyes closed listening to some music over his headphones. Emily and Rossi were absorbed in conversation, while Hotch, who was sitting next to Emily, already worked on some paper work for the case they had just solved.

Kat recapitulated her first case ever in her head. It gave her a strange feeling to know that all this might not have happened if the inhabitants of this little town had treated the boy, who should later become an arsonist, in a different way. She sensed somebody was watching her and found Spencer's gaze locked on her face. A few minutes before, Reid's eyes had wandered to her, who seemed to be deep in thoughts. He wondered how she felt about her first days in this job, if she was tired or satisfied or terrified or unhappy... or what she thought at all. Right now her eyes wouldn't give away a thing and just in that moment he realized that those eyes had been staring back at him for quite some time now. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something but then looked down. As he raised his gaze again he found her still watching him smiling a little mischievously. He searched for something to say.

"Shirt." He blurted out.

"What?" She chuckled.

"My shirt. You can give it back to me. Any time you want." He managed to say. _Why can't I form coherent sentences anymore?_ He asked himself.

"Oh yes, sure. I am just going to wash it."

"Don't worry about that, you don't need to wash it."

"Yes I do." She insisted and he could then see her hesitating for a few seconds, her hand automatically reaching into her hair.

"You know..." She started. "I thought maybe I could make it up to you some time soon."

"Oh there is nothing you need to make up for."

"Yes there is. Without you the whole police office of Royal would have had the chance to see my underwear. And also I made you feel uncomfortable in this situation. So: Do you like Italian food? I can cook a terrific melanzane since I lived over two years in Naples." Reid was at a loss of words.

"Spencer?" She inquired. He just nodded.

"So is Saturday working for you?"

"Um... working for me."

"Great!" She got up from her seat. "Is the bathroom this way?" She pointed to the other end of the jet. Spencer nodded in response. She walked off and he stared into the direction she walked.

"Well she is working for you, pretty boy." Morgan commented who had taken off his headphones.

"You were listening to this?" Spencer asked.

"We all were, Reid." Emily laughed.

"I definitely have to talk to her about spending two years in Italy." Rossi stated.

"What do you mean 'working for me'?" Reid got back to Morgan's comment.

"You have a date, kid. Didn't you realize?"

"I-" he started but Morgan wasn't done teasing yet. "So you saw her in her underwear!? And also it has been pretty obvious: You're into that girl." Reid shot him a glance, but returned his gaze to the window, because he couldn't hide his smile anymore.

* * *

 **A/N: So this for a start. I am curious! What do you think?**


	2. You just can't beat chemistry

2\. You just can't beat chemistry

"Aah, Damn it!" Spencer Reid exclaimed as he accidentally kicked his little toe at the edge of his cupboard. He had just gotten out of the shower and was only dressed in a bathrobe, strands of hair sticking out in every direction from his head. He rubbed his toe and took a look at his own reflection in the mirror contemplating about if he should shave his stubble or not. It was Saturday evening and in 40 minutes he was supposed to be at Kat's place for dinner. _Still enough time to freak out..._ He thought. Looking around the room he was wondering what he wanted to do first, took two steps in the direction of his wardrobe, stopped and went back into the bathroom to get his stubble shaved off. As he was done he found himself standing in front of his wardrobe again, thinking about what people wear for a date. Since he had never in his whole life been on a date, he had really no idea. Should he just dress in the usual clothes he also wore for work or should he be more casual?

 _What the hell does casual even mean?_ He asked himself. They would meet at her place so it wouldn't be too fancy, or would it? He had never been to her place and for half of the time he knew her, she had been wearing his shirt, so it was hard to guess if she was a fancy kind of person. And should he put on some cologne? Or was that too much? He stumbled back into his bathroom and out of the drawer he fumbled a bottle of cologne his aunt Ethel had given him for Christmas two years ago.

After putting on what he thought of as right amount of fragrance, he got back to his closet and pulled out several shirts. Putting them back in, he decided on a beige trousers and a dark button-down shirt, but hesitated again when he was automatically grabbing a tie. Did people wear ties to a date? And then another thought hit him: Was it a date at all? She never really said that, it had been Morgan who put that thought in his head. Well, if it wasn't a date he could relax himself a little bit and if it was, what the hell should he expect from it? Should he call Morgan and ask him about it? _No!_ He thought. _Or he will mock you for the rest of your life..._ Instead he tried to calm himself a little down, trying to stop all the rambling inside his head and just look forward to a nice evening.

In fact, Spencer _was_ looking forward to it. If he wasn't at work at the weekends he would just stay at home in the evening and read some books, play chess or take a long bath. He never admitted it to anyone, but he really liked to take a long hot bath from time to time. And if he was 'going out' it was either a seminar or a chess competition or a night out with his co-workers. Well, _technically_ Kat was a co-worker as well, but he had known her only for six days now. When he pushed all his freaking-out aside he could actually feel a strange excitement somewhere deep down inside. So he finally settled for a dark tie, brushed through his hair and left his apartment. Fortunately Kat lived only half a mile from his place, so he could walk. The fresh spring breeze cleared his head and as he arrived at the right house he still had some five minutes left to be on time. He decided on buying a bottle of red wine in a little shop in the street and after that rang her doorbell.

"Second floor" He heard Kat's voice through the speaker. As he arrived at her door he knocked again.

"Come inside, it's open!" She called out from the other side of the door. He entered and found himself in a room that seemed to serve as a living room, kitchen and dining room all in one. It looked cosy, not too modern with a lot of decorative details.

"Hey!" he greeted Kat who was standing behind the counter slicing some tomatoes. She was wearing a dark dress with flowers on them, her blonde hair spiralling down her back, making a colour contrast to the dark fabric.

"Good evening, Mister!" she greeted back. With a smile she noticed the hint of cologne in the air. She had never really imagined him to be the type to wear that. "I have to confess that I am actually not nearly done with cooking yet, since I always manage to be late. But we could just pretend I came up with the idea we could cook together." She grinned apologetically.

"With pleasure!" Spencer answered with a chuckle. "What do you want me to do?" He set the bottle of wine on the counter.

"Well for a start, you could just open that bottle you brought." She handed him the opener. After they had clinked their glasses they took a sip. Usually Reid felt uncomfortable making a longer eye-contact with people especially in a non-professional surrounding and especially with attractive women, but for some reason he felt at ease when he looked into the tiny blonde woman's eyes. Kat on the other side was amazed by the honest gaze she found on his face: There was no pretending or trying-to-be someone else. This lanky, weird guy with the sparkling eyes was just himself and she was intrigued by that.

"Now I wanna see you cry, Spence." She teased. He raised his eyebrows. "Will you cut the onions?" She pointed on the counter. He sat his glass down and began to work on that.

"Do you know why you have to cry when you cut an onion?" Spencer asked her rhetorically.

"Nope" she said while she turned over the eggplant in the pan. "But I am pretty sure you are about to tell me. Am I right?"

"When you cut an onion, you break cells, releasing their contents. Amino acid sulfoxides form sulfenic acids. Enzymes that were kept separate now are free to mix with the sulfenic acids to produce propanethiol S-oxide, a volatile sulfur compound that wafts upward toward your eyes. This gas reacts with the water in your tears to form sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid burns, stimulating your eyes to release more tears to wash the irritant away. And so once you start crying while cutting onions, you won't stop until you're done... speaking of which: Can I get a handkerchief?" He turned around to her with tears in his eyes. Kat giggled handing him a paper towel.

"What's so funny?" He inquired wiping away the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"You can give me a chemistry lecture while cutting an onion but still cannot prevent the effects said chemistry has on you." She teased and giggled again. He smiled over her lively amusement.

"Well you just can't beat chemistry." He chuckled.

Hours later they had finished all of the melanzane and the bottle of wine. Both could feel their throats getting soar from all the talking, the muscles in their cheeks hurting from smiling and laughing. From experiences of Spencer's troubled high school time over Kat's street work in Naples to Hotch's caring strictness and Garcia's loveable quirkiness they had talked about whatever had come to their minds. Even though they had avoided the really bad experiences they both had made in their past. But neither of them felt the need to cast a cloud over this light-hearted conversation.

"I totally understand what you are talking about." Spencer just responded to Kat complaining about her mother constantly telling her how to dress properly when she would visit her in Germany. "Every time I visit my mom in the sanatorium in Vegas, she tells me to eat more, because I am too skinny. I guess mothers can't turn off their worried thoughts about their children. In fact there is a hormone..." He trailed off as he noticed the serious and a little self-conscious look on Kat's face.

"I haven't mentioned to you that my mom is in a sanatorium, have I?" He asked, rhetorically again, because he of course knew the answer. Their comfortable feeling chatter about everything under the sun had made him shortly overlook the fact she didn't know this important but still difficult matter of his life.

"You do not have to elaborate on that topic, if you don't want to." She reassured him, but he stopped her with a gesture.

"No, it's fine. I feel comfortable telling you about this. To give you the short version of this: My mother is in a sanatorium since I turned 18, because she suffers from paranoid schizophrenia." He said, trying to sound matter-of-factly.

"Oh" Kat didn't know what to respond. "That must be hard for the both of you."

"It is the best for her, because she needs to be taken care of and I can't if I want to work." He looked down on the table grabbing his empty wine glass. "I write her a letter every day." His voice was calm but Kat could tell he was trying to tame his emotions.

"That is a good thing, Spencer. I think she knows you care about her. And also writing letters is a really personal thing, much more intimate than all the emails people send these days."

"Also you can read a lot of a person's emotions in the hand-writing. And I like to let her take part in my life." His mood lightened up again. "Actually I..." He tried to stop himself from telling more, because he was afraid she would think it was too strange that he had told his mother everything about her in his letters.

"You what?" She inquired.

"I told her I met you... and that you invited me for dinner." He looked down again. "Do you mind?"

"No of course not!" She laughed. "It's always nice to get to know new people and tell your loved ones about it. And actually it is a nice anecdote how you spilled coffee over my blouse and I got to wear your shirt for the rest of the time. In fact I told my mother about it, when I called her on the phone yesterday."

"You did?" The thought of her telling other people about meeting him made him feel a little special.

"I did, and she thought it was funny." She added and then yawned.

"It's already quite late." Spencer said and took a look at his watch which told him the new day had already arrived. "I didn't really notice how quick the time passed by."

"Me neither"

"So I think I should get on my way home." He rose from his chair making an effort to get both of the glasses to wash them in her sink. They had already washed the other dishes before together.

"No, please, I can do that. I promised to cook for you and still you ended up with doing a lot of the work. I will take care of the rest here." She took the glasses out of his hand and sat them back down on the table. Instead she was handing him his cloak.

"Thank you for the invitation. I..." He hesitated. Kat didn't say a word expecting him to go on with what he wanted to say. "It has been a long time since I have had such a ... pleasant evening." He tried to find the right words.

"I enjoyed it a lot." She smiled up at him. While talking they had made the short way to her door. "I think we will see on Monday."

"We will." Spencer was unsure about how to say goodbye to her. But before he could come to a solution she already surprised him with giving him a kiss on each cheek.

"We had an Italian dinner and this is the Italian way to say goodbye." She said laughing as she noticed his confusion.

"Oh that is nice." He didn't know what else to say and his cheeks and ears turned a little red.

"Good night, Spencer." They shared a long moment looking into each other's eyes.

"Good night, Kat."


	3. Flashlights and Sparks

_**A/N: I am sorry it took me so long! I decided to stick with course of the show at least for a bit with this story. These are some flashlights of Spencer-Kat-interactions. Drama is about to come...**_

3\. Flashlights and Sparks

Kat stirred. She had slept very well but something felt odd. While her head was still buried deeply in her pillows she opened one eye. The sun shone through the branches of the basswood trees that stood next to the house she lived in and created dancing shadows on the wall above her bed. She thought about what day it was and came to the conclusion it should be Monday. So this was about to be the first day of her second week as an FBI agent. Suddenly she stopped all the thoughts running in her mind. She wanted to get up at 7 and she felt _way_ too relaxed for it to be even _before_ 7\. Her alarm hadn't set off yet, had it? She jerked her body up and glimpsed at her alarm clock. 09:15 it said. 09:15! She had been supposed to show up at work 15 minutes ago. Startled she jumped out of her bed and threw her blanket on the ground doing so. Hectically she put on something half-decent to wear, rushed into the bathroom and brushed teeth and hair at the same time. Not even 5 minutes later she already sat in her car and impatiently drove to work.

As she hurried into the BAU and found all desks empty, she made her way up to the conference office and hesitantly opened the door. Inside all six pairs of eyes were on her.

"I am _so_ sorry!" She said sheepishly. "I didn't mean to be late and I really hope it won't happen again."

"You _hope_?" Hotch raised an eyebrow and mustered her with a stern look on his face. Quietly Kat sat down on an empty chair as Garcia continued explaining the case to the group. Reid, who sat on the opposite side of the round table, mustered the young agent with whom he had spent a really pleasant dinner on Saturday. Her posture was rather stiff this morning and he could sense how uncomfortable she felt about the situation she found herself in. His gaze lingered on her face for some time and noticed some kind of lines on her left cheek. At first he didn't know what to make from those but then he realized they were marks of her pillow. As he understood that her reason from being late was that she overslept he chuckled involuntarily.

"Reid, focus." Hotch told him.

Later, after Hotch told them to get ready to fly down to Florida, Morgan started joking with Kat.

"Did you have sweet dreams, Falkenbach?"

"What?"

"You have half your pillow imprinted on your face Kitty Kat. Did you have a tough night that you needed to sleep that long?" Morgan winked at her.

"I-" She sighed. "I have a _really_ tight sleep. When I get comfortable at a place, I have to change my alarm ringtones every few weeks or even days. Otherwise it occurs that I will just not hear them."

"Technically you do hear them, the brain just gets used to some noises, so that by hearing them, it recognizes them, classifies them as not important and just doesn't send the signal to wake up. It often occurs that it even includes the sounds into one's dreams." Reid informed his colleagues.

"Yeah, that's actually true! My current alarm is a siren. I chose it, because it is a really annoying and loud one, but apparently I got used to it again and so my brain somehow included an ambulance in my weird dreams." Kat added.

"Even though we would all like to know of what kind agent Falkenbach's weird dreams were, I am afraid, we all have to get on the plane now." Rossi interrupted them.

* * *

Three days later Kat was at home, getting ready for work. They had returned from Florida in the afternoon of the day before. The case had been intense and so she had gone to bed early the night before. Her cell phone rang and a look on the display told her it was Reid calling her.

"Hey!" She answered.

"Hey... I... so, you're awake?" Reid stumbled a little over his own words on the other end of the line. Calling her before work he had followed an impulse, if he had thought longer about that, he probably wouldn't have done it.

"Yes, I am awake. Gonna be all punctual today." She chirped.

"Sorry, I just wanted to check in, so that you wouldn't oversleep again." He explained.

"Oh yes, that actually was a very good thought! I still haven't found a good way of how to avoid this oversleeping. When I was still in college, I sometimes asked my mom to call me in the morning. And when I didn't pick up she would call me as often as it took for me to finally hear her calls."

"I could call you in the mornings if you'd want me to." Spencer offered.

"Oh, well. I would appreciate that, but you don't have to. I mean, I really do not want to be late again, but other adults also manage to wake up on time, right? I should be able to do that, too, shouldn't I?"

"I would gladly help you out of that struggle." Reid smiled at his end of the line.

"Okay, superhero. See you in a bit." They both hung up.

* * *

Another two days later on Saturday evening Reid was in his apartment taking a bubble bath. He had put on some classical music and chose some what he thought of _light_ literature and tried to shake off all stiffness and relax for once. From time to time he really enjoyed a bath. He liked how the warm water embraced his body and made him feel heavy and tired. It wasn't that late yet, but he planned on going to bed early to catch up on all the sleep he often missed during working days. For a moment he laid the book aside and slid down in the tub a little bit, so that the back of his head was in the water and the strands of his hair were dancing in every direction in the water around his head. With his ears covered with water and bubbles he thought he heard a silent knock and sat up in the tub again. Yes there was definitely somebody knocking at his apartment door. He cursed a little bit internally and for a second contemplated to pretend not to be home. But since the music he had playing probably already gave him away he got out of the tub, slung a bathrobe around his wet and soapy body and made his way to the door. He opened it only for a little gap at first, but as he saw Kat standing in front of his door he opened it completely.

"What are you doing here?" He blurted out and chided himself immediately after saying that for sounding so rude. Kat took a look at Reid's dripping wet hair and the fluffy bathrobe.

"Well, I am clearly interrupting something." She stated with a half-smile.

"I... um... well. I was taking a bath and... do you want to come in?"

"Oh, I really didn't want to bother you. I was down the street when I walked past that Indian restaurant you told me about yesterday and I wanted to get some take-out and thought you'd want some, too." She held up a bag. "But I can just leave yours here and we'll see again on Monday."

"No, no! It's fine! I... um..." Spencer didn't know what to say or how to handle the situation. He did want her to come in, but he was a little embarrassed he was wearing nothing but a bathrobe. "Please come in! I will just go and... well-" He gestured down to his body. "Dress properly."

"Oh don't bother, if you're comfortable like this." She joked with a mischievous grin. Reid let her to his kitchen and then made his own way back to the bathroom where he washed off the soap and quickly dried and dressed himself again. It was a weird thing this interacting with Kat. When he thought about her and imagined talking to her, and how she might smile or laugh and look into his eyes, he felt all nervous. But when he was actually talking to her he somehow felt at ease. Truth be told, he still wasn't a small-talk hero, and especially in a situation like this – her surprising him when he was in his bathrobe – made him stumble over his own tongue quite some time. But still, seeing her sitting comfortable in his kitchen, having set up the table and awaiting him smiling to join her dinner made him feel genuinely satisfied with – well – _things_. Even though they only knew each other for not even two weeks, he found himself liking spending time with her.

"You found everything okay?" He asked gesturing to the plates on the table.

"Yeah, I hope you didn't mind me searching your kitchen?"

"No not at all! I have no secrets." He said lightly.

" _Really_?" She inquired with arched eyebrows.

"Not that I can think of right now. And I am sorry I cannot offer you anything special to drink to this exclusive meal." He said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Oh I can survive without that." She said drily as she took the first fork full of tandoori chicken. "So you like to take a bath?"

"Well my mother taught me to wash myself at least twice a year."

"So today is my lucky day I encounter you right after one of these rare occasions and you are still well-smelling."

"You are one lucky girl." He grinned and dug into his meal.

* * *

Exhausted from the last days of work Kat made her way to the patient's room she was told Reid was supposed to be in. She had just checked in on Hotch with the other agents. After a crazy case in Detroit and Canada they had immediately started with working on the next one in Virginia. During that case they found out Hotch had been attacked by Foyet. Now everybody was on the verge of a nervous break-down and to make matters worse Spencer had been shot in the knee during the Virginia-case.

She knocked on the door frame and quietly entered his room. You could see how tired he was on his face, but as he spotted the young agent his features lightened up. Due to a packed schedule the past weeks they hadn't exactly spent a lot of time together apart from their job, but he had developed the habit of calling her in the morning, so she wouldn't oversleep and be late for work.

"Hey, how are you?" she inquired.

"I'm okay, I guess." He looked down to his bandaged knee. "How is Hotch?" He asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Well medically speaking he is stable." She sighed. "But I really don't want to imagine what he is going through. He's saying his good-byes to his son right now. They're taking them into protected custody."

"And they can only come back, if we catch Foyet." He closed his eyes, a painful expression on his face. "That could take years. He's taken a break from murdering for 10 years before and it's possible he'll do it again only to torture Hotch." He opened his eyes again and stared on his hands on top of his blanket. Kat was at a loss of words. She didn't know Hotch for a very long time and she had never seen his son before, but she deeply felt for them. This man deserved to see his son grow up and be a part of his life. She felt like crying but fought against it.

"How are you all holding up? How are you this strong?" Her voice was shaking a little.

"You will get tougher as the time goes by." He told her. "This job makes us targets and so far we all got our share in one or the other way." She looked at him as he said those words, a question plain to see on her face, that she did not dare to ask. He knew about what she was wondering. "The short version is, I was abducted during a case once, hold captive and drugged. But I got away. The BAU saved me. I surely struggled with that experience for some time but eventually I pushed through. I will tell you more about it someday, if you want to know. But not today. Today you need to sleep, Kat."

She took a deep breath trying to swallow all the emotions for a second. "Yes, you are right. You're staying here over night?"

"Yeah I will be discharged tomorrow."

"Should I pick you up? I have a car." She shrugged

"That would be nice. At 10?"

"Alright" She got up and reached out to give his hand a little squeeze. He smiled as she did so.

* * *

A week later the team except for Hotch and Reid sat in the BAU each one working on their desks.

"Hey Kitty Kat" Morgan addressed agent Falkenbach. "Do you know where Reid is? Wasn't he supposed to be cleared for work again today?"

"Yeah I thought so, too. At least that's what he told me the day before yesterday at lunch. But I haven't got a clue to where he is. He also didn't call me this morning." Kat informed him.

"Does he call you every morning?" Prentiss seemed to be amused.

"He does on workdays, at least when we're not around the country for a case obviously. He's just making sure, I won't oversleep. He actually saved me from that twice already."

"So... morning calls, lunch dates. You two are hanging out a lot together, aren't you?" Morgan was clearly aiming at something, she didn't miss that. But she preferred to think innocently about her and Reid's friendship. She wasn't exactly the kind of person who would overthink all her relationships to other people and rather just enjoy the moment and see what would be happening... though she couldn't deny the attraction she felt for him.

"Sure, it's nice. Human beings need friends, you know. He's funny and cares and I enjoy the time and feel really good around him. Why wouldn't I?" She tried to pretend she didn't know where he was going with his questions.

"So... friends?" Derek prodded again. Kat just smiled. Right in that moment Reid entered the room supporting his weight on crutches.

"There he is!" Prentiss exclaimed. "What took you so long?"

"The subway was late somehow, there were some technical issues. I am sorry." He sighed.

"Why are you going by subway anyway?" Kat wanted to know.

"Well first of all, I always come by subway. And second, how else could I come right now?" He gestured to his knee.

"Well, that's easy to answer: I can pick you up! I basically drive past your house when I drive to work. We could carpool anyway, even when you get rid of the crutches one day." She suggested.

"Or you join me on the subway. It would definitely be good for the environment." He countered.

"But riding the subway with crutches? C'mon Spence, that's not exactly comfortable."

"You have a point there." He thought about it. "As long as my knee is still bad, we can carpool, but after that we're going by subway."

"Deal."

"Wait, the deal is not done yet." Something else came to his mind. "When you pick me up, you have all the work with me..."

"It's not _work_!" Kat protested.

"We can have a deal like this: You pick me up with your car, when we're going to work for as long as I am dependent from those crutches. But for each week you do that, I owe you one dinner." He suggested and stretched his hand in her direction to seal the deal. For some reason her heart beat a little faster.

"Deals involving food are the best deals." She laughed and shook his hand.

" _Friends_ " she heard Morgan say very quiet so that only she could hear it. He turned around to her and arched his eyebrows. She on the other side looked down and felt her cheeks enflame a little.


	4. Whatever that means

_**A/N: So... I know it's hard to get used to a new character, but I hope I did an okay job getting you acquainted with Kat. I am sorry it took me 7 months to update this story before, but, you know, sometimes life just happens. I hope it won't happen again.**_

 _ **By the way... reviews and stuff could really be a motivator here for me to write more and faster :D Thanks!**_

4\. Whatever that means

The tomatoes, onions and garlic for the Bruschette were sliced, the meatballs and potatoes for the köttbullar were heating up and the apple-cobbler was in the oven. Spencer felt fully prepared. Kat would be coming in half an hour over to his place like she had done the last three weekends: They stuck with their deal: Each week she would drive him to work he would cook for her once. Already a couple of weeks had passed and they hadn't managed to keep the deal every weekend, because they had had to work quite some over-shifts during the last cases. Also Kat had had some really tough time. A victim had died in her arms and she had to shoot a serial killer. It was the first person she had ever killed and even though she didn't talk about it much at work, Reid sensed she had a hard time dealing with it.

He was determined to make her feel better tonight and so he came up with some special ideas for their dinner. He still wasn't sure if those were dates, but he didn't feel the need anymore to classify them. Knowing her history of having lived in a lot of different places, he centred the dinner he prepared around that. The starters were dedicated to the time she had lived in Naples, Italy, the main course was a Swedish dish, since she has lived a year in Stockholm. And finally for desert he had made a kind of apple cobbler she had told him her mum used to make. He had even contemplated calling her mum and asking about the recipe, but he didn't want to intrude so much on her family without her knowing. So he had made a good guess. In fact he never in his whole life had made such an effort with cooking a meal, but he really wanted to make her smile and show her how much he cared about her. He would have liked to tell her that, but he really wasn't good with expressing his feelings. He took a look at the clock on his kitchen wall: Kat was supposed to arrive in 10 minutes. A little in haste he hurried to his bedroom and changed his shirt, because the other one had gotten a little dirty while cooking. He was in a good mood and felt confident.

The girl he was awaiting was two minutes late but finally there was a knock on the door. As he opened it for the first few seconds nobody said anything, they both just smiled at each other until Spencer eventually opened his mouth.

"Benvenuto e buona sera, signorina" He greeted her.

"Ah il signore parla un po' di Italiano?" She asked with a wink of her eye.

"Non molto" He answered, when she stepped in.

"You are wearing your hair in a ponytail, Spence." She observed with a grin.

"Yes while cooking, the hair was bothering me, so I tied it back and later I thought I'd try keeping it that way once."

"Well I like it, you look handsome."

"Thank you." She had never said that to him before and even though he did want to compliment her, too, he didn't want her to think he only said that to give back the compliment. "May I show you to your seat? I got us first class tickets to the sunset tonight." Since it was warm and sunny today Spencer had the idea to have dinner with her on the balcony.

"Oh this is really nice, Spence!" She chirped as she sat down in her seat outside. Facing the sun she closed her eyes for a few seconds, bathing in it.

"I know you love the sun, so..." He trailed off and watched her face in the warm sun light. She looked content and at peace now, but from the shadows underneath her eyes he could tell she was tired from all the weeks of hard work and mental stress.

"How is your knee?" She inquired, her eyes still closed.

"It's getting better. I think it will be fine very soon."

"That's good to hear. I feel like it took so long already to heal."

"Yeah, it will soon be better and then you don't have to feel obligated to drive me around any longer."

"Now don't be silly Spence!" She opened her eyes and faced him. "I enjoy your company very much." She said with honesty in her voice. He smiled and felt some kind of warm feeling spreading through his body. "Yeah, me too."

"So are you ready for the first dish?" He broke the silence again after a few seconds.

"First dish? Are there multiple dishes?"

"Three to be exact." He informed her and walked into the house, supporting his weight on only one crutch.

"Can I help you with that?" She called after him.

"No it's fine." He was already coming back: He had prepared everything on plates, so he only had to carry those out.

"Oh Bruschette!" She exclaimed when she saw the plates. "So we're having Italian tonight?"

"Not exactly. Each course comes from a different country hat you have lived in. Speaking of which: Would you like some red wine? It's from California."

One and a half hour later the two were done with eating. Kat had offered her help for cleaning up, but he refused. She was his guest and she should just enjoy herself. So she stood on the balcony watching the sun set over the trees of the park across the street as Spencer joined her again.

"How are you really feeling?" Spencer asked her. During their meal they had talked a lot, but mostly light topics and he was still a little concerned about her.

"I'm not entirely sure." She sighed "It's a weird feeling and since I did it the conscience that I killed somebody, that I ended a man's life almost never leaves my head."

"He held a gun to another woman's head, if you hadn't killed him, Kat, he would have killed her. You saved her life." He said firmly.

"I know. In theory I know I did the right thing. It's just... if that man hadn't been abused as a child, he wouldn't have become a serial killer. He had no chance." She went silent again watching the sun slowly hide entirely behind the trees.

"You are right. This world is not just and even though we are trying make it a little better and get a bad guy behind bars, there will always be a next one."

"It can be frustrating... will I ever forget about him?"

"I am afraid, you won't. But you will come to terms with it." Reid didn't know if his words were giving her any comfort, but if she needed anything he wanted to be here for her. "Do you want another glass of red wine? There is still some left. Might be enough for the two of us." He offered.

"Yes, thank you." She replied, he poured the last drops of wine in their glasses and handed hers to her. She took a deep breath next to him and kept watching the sky. Now that the sun had set it turned all kinds of colours from red over violet to blue.

"This night is so beautiful." She said still watching the sky. He on his part was watching her, his body turned to her, between them a foot of space. He had the impression her skin was almost glowing in the dim light, her hair was a little ruffled and above her lip she had a red spot of wine. He felt like he could look at her forever.

"You are beautiful." He said in a hushed voice. The words came out before he could really think about it, but they felt right. She turned to him and looked into his eyes. A soft smile on her lips, which was so different from the cheeky grin her face often displayed. It was sincere. Without flickering her gaze, she laid her hand on top of his. He hadn't realized it before, but they hadn't touched at the slightest tonight. Usually she was just ever so casually touching his arm or his hand when they met, but today she hadn't. So when she finally did so, Spencer felt something like a spark rushing through his body. He let their fingers intertwine and with their thumbs the grazed the other's fingers and hand ever so slightly. Spencer's gaze had wandered to their hands and when he looked up again he realized she had stepped a little closer to him.

His breathing became a little heavier and he felt a little dizzy somehow. Never had he noticed you could sense the warmth of a body when somebody was standing close, but Kat's body seemed to practically radiate heat. Even though he seemed to be calm on the outside, his eyes focused on hers, inside of him things were going crazy. Even though they were only holding hands – and she had held his hand before, but then it had been more of a comforting gesture – his body was having all kinds of crazy reactions to her touch. It's not that he was sexually aroused already, but he felt tingly and light and dizzy and he wasn't sure if he was capable of proper thoughts anymore. He was just another time surprised of how little feelings had to do with thinking and how much it actually meant just _feeling_. Even though he was a thinker and usually had like a million thoughts in his mind at the same time, now almost all of them had vanished and made room for only one thought. _I want to be with you_. Whatever that meant.

Without thinking he had set his wine glass on the table next to him and reached up his hand to her face. Gently he stroked a few strands of her hair back behind her ears. It felt soft. As he caressed her cheek she leaned into his touch closing her eyes for just a second. As she lifted her chin up to him he leaned down a little. Their faces were now only inches apart from each other. As his gaze dropped from her deep blue eyes to her lips which were slightly parted, he suddenly felt such a strong attraction, it almost felt like gravitation. His lips were drawn to her like the things in the atmosphere were drawn to the earth. But breathing heavily he resisted just for a few more seconds bathing in this feeling of anticipation. Her eyes were opened only half-way and he could feel her breath on his face. He leaned down a little more-

Suddenly his cell phone started ringing loudly causing them to blink a little, getting them back from their trance-like state.

"You should get that." Kat said with a hushed voice and flushed cheeks. Spencer nodded and got his cell out from his pocket. Kat turned away and tried to get back a clear head, she only half-listened to what Spencer was saying on the phone and also he didn't do much talking on his end.

"What is it?" Kat wanted to know as he hung up.

"I need to leave." He said with an alarmed look on his face.


End file.
